Our view: Pensacola’s Confederate monument must come down

After the act of white supremacist terrorism in Charlottesville, Va. earlier this month — prompted in part, no doubt, by that city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee — the choice for Southern cities is clearer than ever before.

We can choose to hold fast to the wrong side of history, to cling to relics that glorify a shameful and immoral period in our past, or we can reject them and acknowledge that Confederate symbols are divisive, outdated, and un-American, and have no place in our public spaces in 2017.

Pensacola was under Confederate control for just 16 months, from January 1861 to May 1862. No significant fighting took place here, and what little did ended in defeats for the Confederacy. Nonetheless, Pensacola was not immune to the wave of Confederate revisionism which swept the South after Reconstruction ended — an effort to reframe and romanticize the war as an honorable struggle for the “Southern way of life” and to minimize the role of slavery as the central cause of the war.

In 1889, the city renamed Florida Square, overlooking downtown Pensacola on North Hill, after Confederate general Robert E. Lee — a man with no connection to Pensacola, who only visited the city once, briefly, in 1846. In 1891, a 50-foot Confederate monument was erected in the center of the park, dedicated to the “uncrowned heroes of the Southern Confederacy.”

The monument describes those who took up arms against the United States and fought to preserve the reprehensible institution of chattel slavery in glowing terms: “Their unchallenged devotion and matchless heroism shall continue to be the wonder and inspiration of the ages.”

There is a difference between remembrance and reverence, and it’s inscriptions like that which remind us that the monument in Lee Square is not simply some innocent historical marker or war memorial. It’s a monument to treason; a celebration of a wicked ideology rooted in hate; a repudiation of the fundamental American idea and promise that all men are created equal.

It’s especially out of place in Pensacola, a city which was built on multiculturalism, its rich heritage shaped by European nations like the Spanish, British, and French; by whites, blacks, and creoles; and by the Native Americans who lived and prospered along the Gulf Coast before the rest of the world knew it existed.

Symbols are important, and the monuments which cities choose to erect and maintain in their public spaces say much about those cities’ values. These monuments have never been symbols of some abstract idea of Southern pride or heritage. They are and always have been symbols of white supremacy. It’s why every Southern city has a monument to the Confederacy but few have monuments to the achievements of their black citizens, much less to the hundreds of thousands of black Southerners who lived and died in bondage, enduring lives of fear, misery, and unspeakable brutality.

Studies have shown that many of these monuments were erected in the years following Reconstruction, as white supremacists regained control of state and local governments, ousted black and creole officials, and began laying the groundwork for segregationist “Jim Crow” laws. Pensacola was no exception. During Reconstruction, black Pensacolians served as mayor, city council members, and other government officials. But in 1885, then-Governor Edward A. Perry, a former Confederate general, convinced state legislators to revoke Pensacola’s city charter, replacing the elected council with an appointed, all-white city government. Six years later, the Confederate monument in Lee Square was erected, and Perry — who died in 1889 — was among the three men specifically honored on the monument.

Looking north at Pensacola’s Lee Square Confederate monument, 1903. (Library of Congress/Special to The Pulse)

Put simply, the Lee Square monument was erected by racist men and women, in reverence of an immoral rebellion, and in furtherance of a fundamentally un-American ideology which has no place in the public square in 2017. It’s history that belongs in classrooms and museums, not upon a pedestal on a hill atop our city.

The Civil War has been over for 152 years. It is time — far past time, really — for Pensacola to follow in the footsteps of other great Southern cities which have repudiated these monuments and moved on.

Reasonable people recognize that the question is no longer whether or not the monument should remain, but rather when it should come down and where, if anywhere, it should be moved. We urge the mayor and city council to act quickly and to demonstrate strong moral and political leadership. Let us strive to bind up our city’s wounds; to show the world that Pensacola is a city where all are welcome; to close the door on a painful past in favor of a brighter future.

35 Responses

The attack on Confederate monuments is an extremely poorly camouflaged campaign to foment hatred for white Southerners. The attempts to portray Pensacola as a hotbed of white supremacy about to boil over into racial violence is sickening. History is fluid and subjective, but this editorial purports to KNOW what history is, and implies that you’d better agree. The attempts to shame our ancestors, who were no worse than anyone else who has ever lived, especially the barbarians who came down here and made war on them, are unworthy of anyone who respects the truth … If these culture destroyers are doing this to make thinks better, they are doomed to colossal failure.

Ah, yes. I knew someone would try the “white people are so oppressed” argument. It is Pensacola that is “doomed to colossal failure” since its citizens seemed determined to cling to backwards ideas. The city is stagnating, and this comment shows why.

Whoever wrote this article is at best, very uninformed. I would suggest they go back to their history books for additional study. In addition, I’m sensing hate, anger, violence and other negative emotions within the author. WOW!

That memorial has been in place at the same location for 126 years without problems. Now we want to destroy our monument to the brave soldiers that fought for a cause with their fellow statesmen and we are going to try to placate a small minority of citizens that mostly are outsiders of Pensacola. People that know me know that I am an historical nut about our rich history over the past 458 years when DeLuna landed. To me this is giving in to a current feeling to erase our confederate history which helps future generations understand the Civil War. The movement by Hayward is like the Mayor of New Orleans which is for selfish political gain among his black voters. I think this is an big mistake to take down this memorial just like the Mayor made us the city of four flags which is not true. Let’s let historical monuments and flags and memorials stand in place for future generations to understand true history. My forefathers in the Yonge, Brent, Watson and Hatton families that made Pensacola great, buried in St Michael’s and St. John’s cemeteries, are churning in their coffins today with this idiocy going on today. Let’s leave Lee Square as is!

Do any of your readers know anything about the history of the “Civil War”? Most of the southerners who fought and died for an already collapsing slave-based economy were, themselves, little more than slaves themselves in an economy split between wealthy landowners, who ran things as they saw fit, and everyone else, white and (largely enslaved) black, who scraped by.

Get rid of the monuments to a diseased anti-Christian, anti-Human past and, whatever your spiritual belief system, try to build a community that recognizes the contributions and sacrifices of everyone, no matter color of their skin!

These conflicting arguments are a bit much. On one hand, we’re told the monuments are horrible because they were put up to symbolize the dominance and oppression of blacks by whites during the “Jim Crow” era. On the other hand we’re told they’re horrible because they were put up to “sanitize” and romaticize the war by people who claimed the war wasn’t about slavery. I’ve got a few simple questions here.

1. If the war was all about slavery and nothing else, why did so many of the leaders of the war on both sides say it wasn’t DURING the war?

2. If the war was all about slavery, why did so many of the Southern leaders speak of slavery as an evil that should be ended gradually, both before and during the war?

3. If the war was all about slavery, why did those same leaders, their widows and children, speak and write for the next 50+ years about it NOT being about slavery? (This is referred to as the “Lost Cause Revisionist school of thought” by modern revisionist historians who try to discredit it.) If Southerners thought slavery was so great they’d fight a war to preserve it, why did they and their descendants spend the next 50+ years saying they hadn’t fought for it?

4, If the war was all about slavery, why is it that, when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, the one of those two men who was a slave owner was NOT General Lee.

5. The British freed the slaves in 1776 and 1812, not for any concern over the slaves but to try to start a slave rebellion which was Lincoln’s plan in 1863. Does this mean we were fighting to preserve slavery in 1776 and 1812? (And by the way, there were more slaves in New York City in 1776 than in the whole colony of Georgia.)

6. Let’s do a little compare and contrast here. Confederate President Jefferson Davis did own slaves, but he thought slavery should be phased out gradually. To this end, he set up a system of schools and courts on his plantation in order to train the slaves for eventual citizenship. During the War, the Davis family adopted a black child who lived with them as one of their family. By contrast US President Abraham Lincoln said repeatedly he thought the freed slaves should never be allowed to vote, serve on juries, etc. Furthermore, at the time he was assassinated, Lincoln had been discussing a scheme to forcibly deport ALL black people out of the country. Illinois, Lincoln’s home State, had a provision in its State Constitution forbidding black people, free or slave, from moving into the State. One of the richest men, and largest slave owners, in South Carolina at the time was William Ellison, a free black man, who would not have been allowed to move to Illinois because of the color of his skin.

There was one, and only one, primary reason behind the war. In 1860, the South had nine million people and the North had 20 million, yet the South was providing three quarters of the revenues of the Federal Government and almost all this money was being spent in the North. The platform on which Lincoln ran had nothing about slavery in it, but it DID support the Morrill tariff, which would make this situation much worse. The country almost went to war in 1828-30 over this, and DID go to war over it in 1861.

One of my relatives by marriage was Lt. Benjamin Franklin Overman (1797-1883), who died in Pensacola. And no, the birth year is not a typo. He was born a Quaker in NC, but served in the US Navy as a young man. He ran a carriage factory in Greensboro, NC in the 1820s, and moved to Florida in the 1830s. He enlisted in the Confederate Army when he was in his 60s. I am sure he knew the stories of the family of his wife (my cousin). Her grandfather Capt. Robert Lindsay (1835-1801) was a Captain in the NC Militia during the Revolution, and served in the first independent NC Legislature in 1777 and 1778. Lt. Overman was no more fighting to preserve slavery than Capt. Lindsay was. They were both fighting to gain their freedom from a government grown tyrannical.

I have often visited Pensacola, but if the monument is taken down, I will never step foot there again, and I know many, many other people who feel the same.

Did you Google local Confederate monuments and then copy and paste the same ill informed rhetoric with diffrent names and dates stolen from Wikipedia? Are you capable of your own thoughts? Using your gift of sharing the news to inform the public doesn’t give you the right to shame and publicly “guilt trip” the community or it’s city council members. Go home. You’re done today. Drink a glass of tea. Perhaps try to do something benifcal for the community tomorrow.

Hmmm J. Bull, how do you know these aren’t the writer’s own thoughts? Can you read minds? And working for a news site absolutely gives the writer the right to shame and publicly guilt trip people. This is an editorial, not a news story. You have that right, too, as you are demonstrating with this very comment. And to Kenneth Daniel, what is this “real knowledge of History” you reference? Let me guess…something you picked up from Alex Jones perhaps?

Obtuse journalism at its worst! Having a soapbox doesn’t give you the right to speak as an authority as if you have a unified opinion that is shared with the masses. Let’s be clear, you merely have another opinion like so many others. No more valuable then the next. Your views are just that. A view. One view. In this instance, I am opposed to your view. Not because it is right or wrong. But because you think that today’s spontaneous emotions need immediate responses. Any response that attempts to make you look like you are so morally on the high ground. But all you are trying to do is to edit history. To force a change in the meaning of history. History in itself is a lesson. By understanding the history, we learn from the past and shape the future. This particular statue, remembers the dead of the Civil War. As such, it must be respected, if not because of the laws that declared the dead of both sides as Veterans in the United States, then by rules of decency that respects the dead. Nobody, in todays United States, is remotely qualified to judge the people and actions of those that lived nearly 160 years ago. Times have change, people have changed. Slavery was wrong. But it was a reality of the time. People did it for various reasons. I wonder how many of the so righteous of today would have been outspoken change agents back then. Actually, I wonder how many of todays righteous citizens would have been slave owners back then because it was so common. If you think this preposterous, consider the numbers of German citizens that turned a blind eye to the extermination of the Jews and “enemies” of the Reich? There were reasons why the masses of German were unaware or didn’t care about this evil. Study the events and learn. They are relative to the present.

J Clark: Not sure what in the editorial gave you the impression that we thought we were speaking for the masses. We realize this is a controversial topic and we agree with you that our view is one of many. That’s why the title of this editorial, and of all of our editorials, begins with the words, “Our view.” Thank you for your feedback.

Taking a statue down does not edit history or, in your words, “force a change in the meaning of history.” History cannot be changed, especially not by object removal. Nobody is trying to change history. They are trying to remove a statue that celebrates the traitors who fought against the United States over the brutal ownership of human beings.

Let me get you to focus on emotional inconsequential subjects while I provide you with sub par government and rob you blind. Don’t look at the man behind the curtain! He is probably just modeling underwear.

Multi Cultural, Precisely what the Confederate States of America ARMY was made of “rich heritage shaped by European nations like the Spanish, British, and French; by whites, blacks, and creoles; and by the Native Americans who lived and prospered along the Gulf Coast before the rest of the world knew it existed.” The Monument honors all of them. Leave it alone.

Think about this………the monument at Lee Square has been there 126 years and no one objected until now!!!
Just being that that long makes it historical and our Pensacola history is very important to retain.

This delusional gaslighting of white southerners is moronic. The Democratic Left is attempting to make us guilty for something none of us did. They make blacks open the scars of slavery. You are sending the city and the country into the dark ages by doing this.

Hey Liz we get it. You hate Pensacola because someone or something bad happened to you here. Get over trolling Pensacola sites and bashing my city and move on with your life wherever that may be. Life usually turns out great when you let things go.

Here’s some history for you fans of the Confederacy. Before the Confederate troops left Pensacola in May 1862, they destroyed much of Santa Rosa County, On March 10, with no warning to the community, Confederate General Samuel Jones ordered their forces to abandon the area and to “…burn every saw-mill, planning-mill, sash factory, every foot of lumber, and all boats of every description. If there is any cotton…you will not fail to destroy it..It is not supposed that you will meet with any opposition, but should there be, you will carry out your orders by force of arms.” Confederate supporters watched helplessly as soldiers burned their homes and businesses. Even Ezekiel Simpson, owner of the Bagdad and Arcadia mills and one of the wealthiest supporters of the Confederate army, who even provided his own personal steamer, the Ewing, to help transport the 1,000 troops who attached Fort Pickens, was not spared. They burned his steamer, his mills, his home. In four days, from March 11 to March 15, Santa Rosa County was in ruins. Residents were outraged. Alexander Blount wrote to Florida Governor John Milton about this”…act of atrocity upon its people, does not deserve the countenance of any honest man or patriot.”

Pulse, you are doing the Lord’s work here. Trying to drag Pensacola kicking and screaming into the 21st century can’t be easy. This comment section shows why a company like Amazon will never consider investing in the city, although I agree with your recent editorial that supports the bid. I can think of nothing that would help the city more than an infusion of progressive, diverse people with extensive educations and a broad range of experiences outside the Panhandle bubble.

It’s crucial to remove these Civil War monuments from all public places and relocate them to sequestered areas in a museum setting where they can be interpreted in context. Regional economic development will be negatively impacted if this doesn’t occur expeditiously.

As for me, to touch any historical monuments is very stupid, it is a very bad position. As for me, it does not interfere with anyone and it is part of the history and architecture of the state. History will not change if you remove this monument!